New Fishing Rod, New Fishing Spot

New Fishing Rod, New Fishing Spot

He examined the silk thread for a while, and a faint red glow emerged.

Snow Silk: Thread spun by the spirit insect Snow Silkworm, exceptionally tough.

Impervious to water and fire, unharmed by blades and swords—it seemed to be quite a fine treasure.

The primary material for making Snow Silk Clothing.

When Lu Qing used his ability and discovered the information on the thread Old Doctor Chen had given him, a look of surprise inevitably appeared on his face.

This mysterious thread was actually a red-glow-grade item.

After awakening his ability for so long, Lu Qing had already learned that under its examination, the light emitted by an item often represented its level of preciousness.

So far, he had discovered three kinds of item glows: gray, white, and red.

Of those, he had previously seen red light only on Old Doctor Chen.

And the information revealed by his ability showed that the old doctor was a cultivation practitioner who had hidden his true depths well.

Now, he had unexpectedly discovered another red-glow item.

And this item had also been given to him by the old doctor.

"I never thought this would be a red-glow treasure."

Lu Qing had known this thread was no ordinary item, but he had never imagined it would be precious to such an extent.

If even his ability judged it to be a treasure, it was bound to be extraordinary.

Just look at how the information described it.

Impervious to water and fire, unharmed by blades and swords! What kind of thread could possess such qualities? If this was not a treasure, then what was? "I wonder whether Old Doctor Chen knows just how miraculous this thread is."

Lu Qing's feelings were somewhat complicated.

In just a few days, Xiao Yan and he had received so much kindness from Old Doctor Chen.

And now, the old doctor had even given him such precious thread.

It left him both touched and ashamed.

After all, he knew that his purpose in approaching Old Doctor Chen had not been entirely pure.

"Looks like I can only seriously catch some good things and give them to Grandpa Chen."

Lu Qing dearly wished to repay Old Doctor Chen's kindness.

But his household was now truly so poor that even the walls seemed to ring with emptiness; they did not have a single decent thing to offer.

Besides, with the old doctor's discernment, money and worldly goods might not even catch his eye.

After all, he had casually given away a treasure like Snow Silk.

The only thing Lu Qing could do was start with the old doctor's hobby.

From what the old doctor had said before, he seemed quite fond of fish.

And fishing happened to be what Lu Qing was best at.

"Looks like you were fated to become my fishing line."

Lu Qing picked up the small bundle of Snow Silk. It felt soft and cool in his hand.

The thread was about as thick as the river-fishing lines he had used in his previous life. He did not know what kind of miraculous creature the Snow Silkworm was, to be able to spin silk this thick.

The bundle of Snow Silk did not look like much, but after inspecting it carefully, Lu Qing realized that if fully unwound, it was probably over a hundred meters long.

He clearly would not need that much silk for fishing line.

Lu Qing took the chopping knife from the kitchen and prepared to cut off a section of the silk to make fishing line.

However, when he laid the silk on a block of wood and brought the blade down, the thread sank deep into the wood along with the blade without suffering the slightest damage.

Only then did Lu Qing remember his ability's description of the silk.

Impervious to water and fire, impossible to sever with blades or swords.

He had originally thought that might merely be a figure of speech, meant to describe the silk's toughness.

He had not expected it to be literally true.

At least for now, the not particularly sharp chopping knife at home could not easily cut through this Snow Silk.

This time, Lu Qing was no longer in a hurry.

To verify whether Snow Silk really was impervious to water and fire, he found a fire starter in the kitchen, lit it, and held a short section of the silk over the flame.

As it turned out, the Snow Silk truly did not snap immediately. It held on for a full five minutes before finally burning through.

"Looks like impervious to water and fire only means difficult to breach, not impossible to breach."

Lu Qing looked thoughtfully at the short piece of silk that had fallen to the ground.

Of course, lasting five minutes in a flame was already incredibly impressive.

After all, this was silk, not iron wire.

Still, the fact that Snow Silk could be burned through was good news to Lu Qing.

If even fire could do nothing to it, then with such a long length of silk that could not be cut, he would have had to make it into a casting rod.

But making a casting rod was far more complicated than making a hand rod.

Moreover, when he had made casting rods in his previous life, he had bought many of the components directly. He had never tried making everything from scratch.

Under his current conditions, making a usable casting rod was not very realistic.

Fortunately, now that Snow Silk could be burned through, it spared him a great deal of trouble.

Next, Lu Qing threw himself wholeheartedly into making the fishing rod.

First came choosing the bamboo.

With a chopping knife in hand, Lu Qing spent an entire day in the bamboo grove behind the village before finally selecting several slender old bamboo stalks and cutting them down to bring home.

Once the bamboo poles were chosen, he had to trim them, roast them, treat them against insects, and so on.

All of that also required a great deal of time.

But Lu Qing could not wait that long, so he picked out one old bamboo stalk, roasted it briefly, and used it directly to make a fishing rod.

He set aside the remaining stalks to roast carefully later.

Once the bamboo pole was ready, the rest was simple.

Without much effort, Lu Qing made the new fishing rod.

"Ta-da! Xiao Yan, look—how's Brother's new fishing rod? Is it pretty?"

One morning, Lu Qing rested his newly made fishing rod on his shoulder and asked Xiao Yan.

"Pretty!"

The obedient and adorable Xiao Yan immediately became his most enthusiastic supporter, nodding over and over.

"I think it's pretty too!"

Lu Qing flicked the fishing rod with a smug expression.

Though he had made it in a hurry this time, the quality of this new rod was not bad at all.

Because in Lu Qing's eyes, the new fishing rod was currently giving off a rich white glow.

Snow Silk Fishing Rod: A fishing rod made with Snow Silk as its fishing line.

The line is tough, the rod body steady and strong. It can withstand a pull of one hundred jin without breaking. With this rod, perhaps you can catch a big fish.

When Lu Qing first read those two lines of information, he had been startled.

The new fishing rod he had made could actually withstand a pull of over one hundred jin.

Snow Silk was a treasure, so although it was impressive that it could endure the force of one hundred jin, it was still understandable.

But the old bamboo that grew casually on the back mountain behind the village was also so tough—it truly exceeded his expectations.

All he could say was that this was indeed the Otherworld. Not only could it produce strange marvels like Snow Silk, even the bamboo growing here was so exceptional.

If the old fishing buddies from his previous life knew about this, their eyes would probably glow green with envy.

"Brother, now that the fishing rod is done, are we going fishing for fishies?" Xiao Yan asked.

"We are. Of course we are!"

With the new rod in hand, Lu Qing looked full of bold spirit.

Besides, making this rod had taken him a full two days.

The fish at home had nearly all been eaten during those two days.

More importantly, in another day, it would be time for the acupuncture appointment he had made with Old Doctor Chen.

This time, he could not go to the old doctor's home empty-handed again.

"Yay! We can go fishing for fishies again!" At once, Xiao Yan grew excited. "Brother, I'll go dig up earthworms for you."

With that, she ran outside.

Lu Qing shook his head.

He did not know what was up with the little girl. Most children, especially girls, were more or less afraid of things like earthworms and insects.

Yet she was not afraid at all. On the contrary, she even wanted to help him catch earthworms. Her courage was countless times greater than that of an ordinary little girl.

"I wonder whether Xiao Yan will grow up to be the graceful lady I hope for, or whether she'll turn into a tomboy?" A thread of inexplicable worry flashed through Lu Qing's heart.

There was nothing wrong with tomboys, of course, but if possible, he still hoped his little sister would become a gentle and virtuous girl.

Shaking his head and casting this distant concern out of his mind, Lu Qing took his fishing rod and headed outside.

By the time he reached the courtyard entrance, Xiao Yan was already waiting for him with the bamboo tube for holding earthworms.

"Hurry up, Brother!" Xiao Yan urged.

"I'm coming, I'm coming."

Lu Qing picked up the shovel outside the house and walked over.

After digging up the earthworms, Lu Qing took a small cloth pouch from the house and tucked it into his pocket.

"Brother, what's that?" the little girl asked curiously.

"This is a secret weapon. Whether we can catch big fishies today will depend entirely on it." Lu Qing put on a mysterious expression.

"Big fishies!" The little girl's eyes instantly lit up.

She did not know exactly how big the big fishies Lu Qing mentioned were, but they sounded very impressive!

After putting away the secret weapon, Lu Qing found the wooden bucket they had used to carry fish a few days ago. He picked up the new fishing rod and pointed straight ahead.

"Let's go, set off!"

"Set off!" the little girl cried sweetly as well.

Before long, the brother and sister arrived at the village entrance.

Hugging the bamboo tube holding the earthworms, the little girl skipped along ahead.

She kept muttering, "Big fishies, big fishies..."

Whenever villagers passed by and saw her like that, they could not help laughing.

"Xiao Yan, where are you going with your brother?"

"It's Uncle Zhao! I'm going fishing by the river with Brother, to catch big fishies!" the little girl replied politely.

"Oh, big fishies? How do you know you'll catch a big fish?" Uncle Zhao teased her.

"Of course I know, because Brother said so. Brother is the best at fishing!" The little girl looked proud.

"Haha, yes, yes, your brother is the best."

Seeing her proud little expression, Uncle Zhao became even more amused and humored her.

"Children's words carry no taboo, Uncle Zhao. Please don't take offense," Lu Qing said apologetically.

"It's fine, it's fine. Xiao Yan is adorable like this. When you were sick a few days ago, the way she cried was what really made people's hearts ache." Uncle Zhao chuckled.

"But go fishing if you want—just be sure to keep an eye on Xiao Yan. Don't let her play in the water."

"I understand," Lu Qing replied seriously.

"Xiao Yan, did you hear that? Listen to your brother. When you get to the river, don't sneak off to play in the water," Uncle Zhao reminded her again.

"I know." The little girl answered obediently, "I'm very good."

"That's right, Xiao Yan is the best-behaved girl."

Uncle Zhao rubbed her hair, his tone somewhat wistful.

After bidding Uncle Zhao farewell, the brother and sister continued toward the river.

But once they reached the riverbank, both of them were dumbfounded.

They discovered that the spot where Lu Qing had fished last time had long since been taken.

And it had not been taken by one or two people, but by seven or eight, all crammed into that small area.

The brother and sister recognized these people too. They were all villagers.

"Lu Qing, you came fishing too? Why not come squeeze in with us?"

When a villager saw Lu Qing and Xiao Yan, he called out to them.

"Mm, we've eaten all the fish at home, so I thought I'd come catch some more." Lu Qing smiled.

Then he asked curiously, "Why are you all crammed together fishing? Aren't you afraid your lines will get tangled?"

"Don't mention it. We don't want to either." The villager wore a bitter expression. "It's just too hard to catch fish in other spots. You wait half the day before getting one. Only this spot makes it easier to catch fish. Oh, right, Hu Zi and the others said this was where you fished last time?"

So they had crammed together just because fish bit more easily here?

Lu Qing was somewhat speechless.

Still, he nodded. "That's right. I fished here last time."

"Then you really are amazing!" The villager gave him a thumbs-up. "You picked such a good spot right away. Over the past two days, we've caught the most fish here. Though I don't know what's going on today—the fish have started biting less."

Of course they were biting less!

With so many of them packed into one spot fishing, even a whole school of fish would be fished out.

And even if they were not all caught, the ones left would probably have become birds startled by the mere twang of a bowstring.

Lu Qing shook his head.

This fishing spot was probably ruined.

At least for a long while, it would be hard for it to return to how it had been before.

"You all keep fishing. I'll try my luck somewhere else."

After being rendered speechless, Lu Qing took Xiao Yan's hand and walked off in another direction.

The villagers did not try to keep him. On the contrary, they breathed a sigh of relief.

It was crowded enough here already. If one more person came, there really would be no room left.

As for Lu Qing saying he would try his luck elsewhere, they paid it no mind.

It was not as though they had not fished other stretches of the river over the past few days, but their results had been poor.

After fishing here and there, they had found that this spot was still the easiest place to get bites.

Otherwise, so many of them would not have crammed themselves in here.

After leaving the small-fish fishing spot, Lu Qing led Xiao Yan onward.

The villagers' behavior had left him speechless, but there was nothing he could say about it.

After all, the river belonged to everyone, and anyone had the right to fish here.

It was not as though a spot became someone's simply because they had caught fish there.

Therefore, Lu Qing did not think much of the villagers occupying the small-fish fishing spot.

With his ability, if a fishing spot was taken, he could simply find another.

The river was so long, and who knew how many fishing spots it contained? There was no need to fear having nowhere to fish.

With that thought in mind, Lu Qing continued forward with Xiao Yan.

He did not even go to the other two fishing spots he had discovered last time.

Those two spots were likewise within the other villagers' sight.

What if he caught fish later and everyone swarmed over to mooch off his fishing spot again? What was he supposed to do then? Better to simply go farther away and fish somewhere no one could see, avoiding unnecessary trouble.

In any case, he had come well prepared this time. He had brought not only his fishing rod and bucket, but also the firewood chopper from home, so he could carve out a fishing spot whenever he needed to.

Lu Qing led Xiao Yan slowly along the riverbank, using his ability to search the river's surface all the while.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up.